What's It's Really Like Baking For The Internet — When You're Totally Topless

When Matt Adlard told his girlfriend he wanted to start a YouTube channel where he baked — without a shirt on — she responded exactly the way you'd expect someone to: "I remember the night I went home and told her, 'I'm gonna start this thing, and the name's Topless Baker.' She just smirked and laughed at me," Adlard recalls. The idea was just a joke among friends who knew how bored Adlard was with his nine-to-five job, but the only thing laughable about Topless Baker a year after its launch is the insane success it's had.

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Jonathan Boulton

The number of fans across Adlard's YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels totals nearly half a million, and it's earned him amazing opportunities. Most recently, he inked a partnership with Match, which had him touring the country hosting cooking classes for singles. The menus — one for a morning-after brunch, one for a third date dinner, and one for a midnight rendezvous — are a good indication of the brand Adlard's going for.

Jonathan Boulton

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And — yes — even his girlfriend is on board at this point. "She loves Topless Baker now," Adlard says, "I just don't let her read any of the YouTube comments." That's because the ones he gets veer more X-rated than PG-13. Adlard doesn't have to search hard for them, either; they're left on nearly every video he records. A sampling: "That cake's not the only thing that needs to go in the fridge to cool down for a few minutes." "Get inside me. I'm talking about the cake, obviously." "I hope the cake isn't the only thing that's seven inches." "What were you baking again? Sorry, I got distracted."

Jonathan Boulton

But Adlard's shtick isn't all skin and naked cakes, though he frosts them really, really well. He grew up with a chef father, and while he tuned out most of his dad's advice as a kid, Adlard still managed to inherit some major skills. He's mastered all of the most difficult trends — mirror glaze cakes, intricate pie crusts, macarons — and mesmerizes his audience every week.

Typically, Adlard keeps his apron on while filming, but when he reached 100,000 YouTube subscribers, he took it off. Fans have tried to convince him to go bottomless, too, but the Topless Baker hasn't acquiesced just yet: "If I get to a million and I have to do a bottomless episode … I'm worried about reaching a million!"